The Medicines Control Council (MCC) of South Africa has been ordered to probe claims that the industrial solvent, Virodene, is being openly peddled on the internet as a cure for HIV/Aids, the office of Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Tuesday.
The MCC would be tasked with establishing whether any of the South African medicine regulatory requirements had been breached and would recommend appropriate action to remedy the situation, said ministerial spokesperson Sibani Mngadi.
Tshabalala-Msimang ordered the probe after the Democratic Alliance charged on Tuesday that Virodene Pharmaceutical Holdings’ website was claiming the drug was ”safe and efficacious” in treating HIV/Aids, and approved by the MCC in July 1996.
”A glossy brochure on the site states that those interested in the drug can participate by ‘securing the Exclusive Product Distribution’ in their country and by ‘assisting in the process of registration in your area of influence’,” said DA health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard.
”The business address given is a post box in Pretoria, but the drug is clearly being marketed at an international audience,” she said.
Initially punted as a major breakthrough in the search for a cure for HIV/Aids, Virodene was denied clinical trials by the MCC after a 22-month inquiry.
There was much controversy over an invitation to its developers — who although unknown in the Aids field were favoured over established scientists — to present their work to the Cabinet and request R3,7-million in state funding.
It was reported that two South African employees of Virodene Pharmaceutical Limited of South Africa were ordered to leave Tanzania in September 2001 over their alleged implication in clinical trials of Virodene PO 58.
They were arrested in 2000 for allegedly importing Virodene PO58 and four other drugs, PO 59, PO 60, PO 61 and PO 62, without official approval, raising fears that Tanzanians were being used as guinea pigs. – Sapa